1

SHIPBUILDING.

The Douglas spruce timber is known to be a first-class timber for shipbuilding, as well as for masts and spars, but, owing to the high cost of labour, few large vessels have been built in the province. Many steamboats, for towing and for river navigation, as well as numerous schooners and small craft, have been built. A sea-going barque of 450 tons register was launched at Nanaimo in 1882. The material and facilities for shipbuilding are excellent; so that this important industry may assume large dimensions.

INDIANS.

The Indians are law-abiding. They are largely employed in the salmon fisheries and in seal hunting, &c. As common labourers they are useful, and are not without capabilities as artisans; some take to farming and have cattle, others carry on mining with "rockers" on the Thompson and Fraser Rivers; altogether, the Indians contribute very largely to the trade of the province. They are the best working Indians on the continent.

CITIES.
VICTORIA.

HOW IT STRIKES A STRANGER.

Some

"Victoria has the purest summer climate of all places I have ever visited. For a summer resort for people who like rowing, fishing, yachting, and riding under sunny skies, and in an atmosphere like that of early October in New England, the place has no equal. time, when population and wealth accumulate on the Pacific coast, it will be much frequented by people from the parched heattortured valleys of California. The population of Victoria is about 7,000.

"It is picturesquely situated on a lovely harbour. Its citizens are extremely well cultivated, thoroughly English in their habits, and of unbounded hospitality to well-accredited strangers. There are some beautiful private residences and streets, fine stores, a public library, Masonic temple, Odd Fellows hall, well appointed hospitals, a large seminary, six churches, five public schools, solid stone public buildings, such as post office, custom house, warehouses, large machine shops, foundry, two banks, a stone dry dock in process of construction, also houses of Parliament. All the streets are lighted with gas; fine water works; a fire department, with two steam-engines; the streets and roads are macadamized for 22 miles around the city, and kept in superb order." (Letter in New York Tribune.)

ΝΑΝΑΙΜΟ.

Nanaimo is pleasantly situated on the east coast of Vancouver Island, on a safe and commodious harbour. There are Catholic, Episcopal, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches, and excellent

schools for both boys and girls, also an Hospital, Literary Institute, Masonic Hall, Fire Company's building. The thriving village of Wellington, in the neighbourhood is, also, supplied with church and school, and shows pleasant private residences and miners' houses. Neither Nanaimo nor Wellington presents the dried-up, blackened appearance which colliery towns so often present in England. have postal and telegraphic communication.

NEW WESTMINSTER.

Both

Of New Westminster, the chief city on the mainland, an Oregon newspaper, the "West Shore," says:

"A more beautiful, convenient, and commanding situation for a large city could not well be desired. Occupying a gentle acclivity, having a southerly aspect, it commands a really magnificent view. The noble Fraser rolls seaward, in sullen silence, at its feet. To the south-west lies an archipelago of beautiful islands of amazing fertility, while far away to the south, rise the snow-capped peaks of the Olympian range, glittering in the sun. Looking northward and eastward, the hoary heads of the Cascade range stand out against the blue sky, like giant sentinels."

New Westminster has a population of about 3,000, and is rapidly increasing in size and importance. It is the central market of a flourishing agricultural district, the seat of a large salmon canning industry, and there also, are in, or near, the city, saw-mills, planingmills, foundries, breweries, waggon-factories, biscuit-factories, tanneries, ship-yards, &c., with important public buildings—the Provincial Lunatic Asylum, the Dominion Penitentiary, District Court House, Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Methodist Churches, the Public Schools, and the Catholic, Episcopal, and Methodist Schools for boys and girls, Dominion Government Offices (for the Post Office, Savings Bank, Telegraph services), &c. Many handsome residences ornament the outskirts of the town, and command beautiful views up and down the river. There is frequent steamboat communication with Victoria, San Francisco, and Nanaimo. Many sternwheel and fishery steamboats are employed on the river. The Canadian Pacific railway will be connected with the city by a short line of a few miles. The climate is very healthy and pleasant.

SMALLER TOWNS.

There are many small towns or villages in the province, such as Granville, Moodyville, Centreville, Hope, Yale, Lytton, Lillooet, Cache Creek, Clinton, Kamloops, Soda Creek, Quesnel, Stanley, Richfield, Barkerville, Forks of Quesnel, &c. All of these have postal, telegraphic, and road communications.

EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.

The Exports and Imports of British Columbia deserve particular

attention.

Coin and Bullion to Great Britain, $531; to the United States, $4,000

4,531

Total Exports.

3,154,194

EXPORTS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF OTHER PROVINCES.

Per head, Exports

A comparison shows remarkable facts. Ontario, $10.85; Quebec, $19.25; Nova Scotia, $18.01; New Brunswick, $17.90; Manitoba, $10.25; Prince Edward Island, $18.31; British Columbia, $55.12.

IMPORTS AND CUSTOMS DUTIES COLLECTED, 1882.

(Britain and Foreign Countries.)

(From the Eastern Provinces of Canada, into the Canadian
Province of British Columbia.)

The above interesting facts, in the infancy of the province, must show, either the great natural resources of the country, or the energy of its small population. More correctly, it may be said that they show both these things. British Columbia, naturally, is he richest province of Canada. The region west of the Rocky Mountains is a country of strong life.

INTER-PROVINCIAL TRADE.

The amount of imports from Eastern Canada-above stated as $559,732, in 1882 is the most noteworthy fact in our trade relations lately. Canadian goods come to British Columbia (which is a Canadian province) in bond through the United States, and are shipped from San Francisco to Victoria. Notwithstanding this roundabout transport, the imports into the province from Eastern Canada, already, are equal in value to those from Great Britain (excluding railway requirements).

The following shows the growth of these imports from Eastern Canada :-

Cordage, axes, agricultural implements, sewing machines, nails, iron safes, boots and shoes, straw wrapping paper, rye whisky, refined sugars, manufactured tobacco, and ready-made clothing are, now, almost exclusively received from the Eastern Provinces. The importation of other goods, such as cottons, tweeds, flannels, blankets, &c., &c., is yearly increasing.

The increase of the external trade of the Province has been accompanied (see page 107) by the starting and growth of several important provincial manufactures.

The foregoing facts respecting the exports and imports, the trade and duty-paying power of British Columbia, are, as above said, very remarkable, when the isolation of the province and the smallness of its population are considered. They deserve attention, as, probably, no other people, anywhere, can show a similar record. They are an index of the future.

LORD DUFFERIN'S OPINION ON THIS POINT.

"Canada would indeed be dead to the most self-evident considerations of self-interest, and to the first instincts of national pride, if she did not regard with satisfaction her connection with a province so richly endowed by nature, inhabited by a community so replete with British loyalty and pluck, while it afforded her the means of extending her confines and the outlets of her commerce to the wide Pacific and the countries beyond.”—(Governor-General the Earl of Dufferin, speech 20th September, 1876.)